"The election was only the beginning. If we don't perform, we'll be
held accountable—and we should be."

— Democratic National Committee Chairman Robert Strauss

Democrats could have danced all night, and some of them did, as the
champagne corks popped and the band played on in hotels and
headquarters across the nation on Nov. 5. But on the morning after
their sweeping election victories, most Democrats recognized that they
had received no mandate from the American electorate. Because of
Watergate and the economy, voters either protested by...